You can have millions of visitors on your site every month, but it won’t make a financial difference for your business if these visits don’t lead to conversions. Statistics show that the majority of business owners are unhappy with the current conversion rates on their websites. Beyond that, nearly every website can benefit in some way from a dedicated conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategy.
There are many factors that can affect your site’s conversion rate, from the color and placement of your call to action, to the number of seconds it takes for your page to load. With so many elements to consider, it can be difficult to know where to start and which aspects will have the most impact for your particular brand. Check out the following five tips to get started with creating your own effective CRO plan.
1. Examine User Behavior
Understanding visitor interaction with your site is the first step to building an effective CRO strategy. There are plenty of reasons why a user may not complete a conversion on your site, but seeing how they navigate once they arrive can help you pinpoint possible causes.
To gain this insight, consider adding heat map and confetti report tools to your arsenal. These can uncover important information about how the majority of users navigate on your site, including:
- How far down they scroll.
- Where they click on the page.
- Areas of the page they do not interact with.
Details like this are invaluable because they let you see the website as your visitors see it, which can inform the type of changes you need to make. If a particular call to action has very few clicks, it likely does not stand out enough from the other elements on your page. Likewise, if certain non-clickable features are receiving a lot of attention, they may be distracting your visitors from converting.
2. Focus on User Experience
Once users land on your site, you want to make the process as simple as possible to navigate. This means making it easy to find the information they want, while also guiding them through a clear path to conversion. In other words, you need to make sure to develop quality user experience (UX). There are several steps you can take to boost the UX on your site:
- Decrease page loading time.
- Add elements that ease navigation.
- Organize your site into a logical flow.
- Monitor buttons and links to keep them functional.
- Avoid cluttering your site with unnecessary visuals or content.
3. Build Trust Through Content
If you really want users to convert on your site, they need to trust that you’re offering them something worth their time and money. So how do you build trust? One important way is through your site copy. The more informative and engaging your copy is, the higher your site’s value is likely to be in the eyes of your potential customers. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when building your content for conversions:
- Be clear and concise.
- Write for your target audience.
- Avoid long, dense paragraphs.
- Incorporate multimedia when possible.
- Include power words and verbs to encourage action.
It also helps to focus on your own brand when creating content for your site, as this can increase your authenticity and help you stand out from competitors. While it’s a good idea to try out new copy for increased optimization, you want to make sure you don’t lose sight of your brand in the process.
4. Play Around with Color
Your content and user experience are not the only elements that can affect how a user experiences your website. While it may be subconscious, the colors you use on your website can also have an important impact. Certain colors are associated with their own particular feelings and actions, and incorporating them can actually help sway some of your users to convert. For example, consider the impact that the following colors can have in marketing:
- Black is often associated with sleekness, wealth and luxury.
- Blue invokes feelings of security and trust.
- Red and orange instill a sense of urgency and fast action.
Combining certain colors can also target a certain type of shopper. For instance, black, orange and red are known to attract impulse buyers. Keep in mind that, using the wrong color for your particular audience can negatively impact your conversions as well. Take the time to research the best colors for your particular customer, brand and product to help you get the results you want.
5. Test, Test, Test
Once you pinpoint which areas of your site need improvement, the next step is to test each change you want to make. Testing is an important tool that allows you to try out different strategies on your site and compare the results. That way, you can be sure that the changes you make have positive effects on your conversion rates.
Whether you plan to adjust your site copy, alter the color scheme or update the functionality, it’s important to perform an individual test for each change. This will help you identify which parts of your CRO strategy work, and which you need to scrap for new ideas. The end result will leave you confident in the current optimization of your site, and with the ability to test new strategies in the future as needed.